I had to keep watching until episode 12. Past I think episode 8 left me feeling sad, but around episode 12 or 13, I finally feel like I had reached the point that I could put down the series for the night, because I finally felt uplifted after episode 8. Wow, I actually almost kind of had a half tear at the end of episode 12 or 13 when Simon regains his inner strength.

If you can make it past episode 4, you're golden.

Man, reading about your watching this show for the first time makes me think about when I first saw it and how often I was blown away by it. If you thought things were good now, you haven't seen ANYTHING yet. You hit episode 16 and things make an . . . . interesting turn. Then, you will have a certain someone very much. Then, the epic gets turned up to infinity. Literally. Dang, it's hard to describe the second half of that show without touching on spoilers. I've probably said too much already. Great series.

YES! I presume you mean 'hate', not 'have'. But yes, I did end up hating Rossiu, until later in on in the series. I have been watching the series through the evening, and i'm up to episode 24. I don't recall a single anime that has absorbed me as much as this one. I get so emotionally involved, I have to remember not to forget myself and remember to fix my face back to normal, because I get pretty emotional watching it, and I can feel it in my face. This is where butthead would say "huh-huh, you were moved, huh-huh" and beavis would say "heh-heh, Shut up bunghole, I was not! Heh-heh." I think this emotional aspect of the series makes it a bit emotionally taxing (is that a redundant statement?) However, there are times when in this series, I've wanted nothing more than to get lost in the dynamics of the story. I absolutely love this Anime, but I think i'm going to be happy when I can move on from it.

I found that from episode 16, which I think is when they have constructed Kamina City, the series becomes very heavy in terms of plot. But I persisted, and I found that this series has consistently given the viewer a sense of resolve. The series has taken some pretty dramatic turns, but figuratively speaking, it takes the right turns. I regress, because of course i'm not going to proclaim things that could potentially spoil the series for someone else.

There hasn't been a single episode that feels like filler. It progresses, and with each episode I find myself not even getting tired of it, it's pretty fucking cool. I'm really happy about that because that was my problem with black lagoon and cowboy bebop. Those shows, being as good as they were, never really pulled you through more than one or two episodes before coming to an ultimate conclusion, only to have another conflict happen in the proceeding episode, and so on and so forth. Although, in Gurren Laggen I can pretty much predict that no matter what, all the robots are going to just get bigger and bigger. That is pretty redundant, but I can let that go.

This show has serious balls. Killing off certain characters, not spontaneously and meaninglessly... like that game, Halo Reach... ugh, nevermind. Anyways, this show show really touches on a lot of bases; Equality (through the beasts and humans fighting side by side); coping with the death of loved ones; Love. But there's one thing that I may overthink a little. This is this reoccurring thing that keeps happening wherein I feel that this show becomes a little bit too over the top. When they're drilling into things to combine with them, they're always screaming at the top of their longs. That may sound really cool reading it here, but when it's happening, it's kind of sort of a little embarrassing. That's a small complaint though. Oh, one more thing, I think the series did a really cool thing by adding Leeroy. I don't know of many shows that are willing to cross that line, but this show had the guts to. I dunno, maybe I just haven't seen a whole lot of animes to really know if this is something as unique as I think it is. Leeroy rules.

Not sure of a better way to describe it although, I may risk sounding pretentious or wordy, but I dunno. I just honestly love this series.

By the way, if you thought everything up to now has been emotionally charged, the ending just might kill you. Brace yourself.

I will concede that the show is definitely over-the-top, with its ridiculous transformations and attack names and shouting and such, but I feel that it fits the overall theme of "Go big or go home." It's one of the reasons why it's in my favorite top two anime shows. In fact, I'm the kind of person who thinks that Gurren Lagann is just as deep as Evangelion, that there's very little out of place in that series.

Not really perfect in games, her style is obviously more suited to shows (admittedly that kind of works for Xenosaga lol, and Xenosaga I is probably Mitsuda's weakest work for sure, replaying it lately, I didn't know he did music for Shadow Hearts I-II which from what I've heard blow his Xenosaga stuff out of the water).

If you're mentioning Kajiura, her Mai HIME OST is also quite known. Especially "Ensei". Typical Kajiura stuff, including her very own mix of latin and japanese in the vocals.The Shadow Hearts: Covenant soundtrack sure is great, most of the stuff is by Yoshitaka Hirota though, not Mitsuda. Talking Mitsuda, there just isn't any better OST than Chrono Cross, really.

Teggen Toppa Gurren Laggen was great, better than the several animes I have seen before (all of which are listed in the previous pages of this thread). I'd still say neon genesis evangelion as just as good though, because the artwork was superior and the characters were just as good. Gurren Laggen had some moments where the animation looked a bit sketchy. To be fair, Gurren Laggen's style had a lot more flair, more things moving on the screen at once. The ending for Neon Genesis Evangelion was just a bewildering catastrophe that cluster fucked my mind.

Maybe now I can try to find something involving more gore, horror, depressing, mature themes? Is there even animes like that, or am I thinking too hopefully? I'm looking for hardcore, bloodsoaked action horror anime. Or perhaps an anime with predominantly dark overtones? I don't mean like elfen lied. No, that anime was pseudo dark and pseudo depressing because it was mixed with hardcore-cheesy moments.

I might come off as shallow to be trying to find an anime like this, but i'm really in the mood for it.

Maybe now I can try to find something involving more gore, horror, depressing, mature themes? Is there even animes like that, or am I thinking too hopefully? I'm looking for hardcore, bloodsoaked action horror anime. Or perhaps an anime with predominantly dark overtones? I don't mean like elfen lied. No, that anime was pseudo dark and pseudo depressing because it was mixed with hardcore-cheesy moments.

I might come off as shallow to be trying to find an anime like this, but i'm really in the mood for it.

I don't know about "action-horror", but check out Berserk, Shigurui, Texhnolyze. The currently airing Psycho Pass might fit the bill, but it's in the second episode so who knows. Bokurano is not gory but it's depressing as hell and has cosmic horror overtones. Think of it as Evangelion on meth.

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

For a more action-packed anime experience that is often very dark, you may enjoy Gungrave. And while it is much lighter on the action, Monster is a fantastic anime with very dark themes all throughout. Both highly, highly recommended.

But anyway, you might want to give Baccano! and Durarara! a peek. They're both from the same studio and their stories are told in unorthodox manners, shifting in-between multiple plot lines simultaneously, and they're so much fun to watch.

It's still very censored. Remember last ep, when Dio uses the mask and starts killing everyone? That part was much gorier in the manga, in the anime they used "clever" censoring by obscuring everything with shadows.

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

I decided to start watching anime about 5 minutes ago thanks to this thread.I found some series of Terren Toppa Gurren Lagann on youtube (although all dubbed in German - I hear real anime-watchers go for original + subtitles, but this'll have to do) so I'm going to watch that now. The intro song is so.... Japanese it hurts. haha. This could be fun.

I was just reading an article i'm reading for my college homework, pertaining to giving reasons for personal persuasions. I came to the conclusion that I really want to give a good reason for something; why don't I like code geass? Leading us off into my long and pointless excursion to put off doing my homework.

I'm going to be telling how I feel, and give a little analysis of the show Code Geass. If you're expecting bigotry and inflammatory statements regarding the show, then you have the wrong notions. I'm not trying to lead you into some kind of argument. I don't even want that. This is just my opinion. I suppose I shouldn't even have to say that. Carrying on...

Emotionally, I don't feel very positively about the show. It's probably been a considerable amount of time since I finished the series (maybe a year ago.) Perhaps my recollection of the series is vague. I'm going by what my gut tells me. I can articulate some, how I feel about the show, and what I actually remember:

The main character, Lelouch, is a super intelligent lead character. First, that's one of my disconcersions with this show. I don't think that having an intelligent lead character makes the series intelligent. I feel allusions of intelligence through complicated plot twists and plain, yet intelligent characters. The characters feel impersonal. As if i'm supposed to relate with this super genius, Lelouch. Sometimes I think the characters are absolutely retarded. How can Suzaku be so righteous, yet lack so much empathy for Lelouch, to the point of being homicidal towards him?

Lelouch's destiny seems to unfold right under his feet. He happens to fall into a truck. Then he gets chosen by a random space chick to be the chosen one. Then random space chick takes a bullet for him. Then Lelouch becomes the harbinger of truth and Justice. It all just feels really inconspicuous to me. I'm not against fictional stories. I get that if there's no conflict of any kind, it doesn't it doesn't lead up to any event, and that doesn't make much of a story at all. However, the series seemed to try to be compelling through a craaaaaaazy plot. That's what I meant by allusions of intelligence. It's like the series is bluffing it's own complicatedness; it tries to lure me into thinking, "oh man, all this crazy stuff happening. In my mind I feel so compelled by this series. Oh hell, this is so awesome."

There's reasons I can't get behind this whole anime thing.

People have told me before; it's just like any other hobby, you have to try different stuff to see what you like. How many more animes do I have to watch before I am an anime fan? It may not be fair that I justify my general lack of feelings for Anime through generalizations. My perspective is admittedly narrow. However, my perspective is all I have. That's the nature of opinions. I can't for the life of me figure out what's so special about this Anime or Anime in general. However, I suppose it would be like if I tried to generalize metal music. I can't generalize something without seeming conceited.

Anime is not like music. I assume metal music, at the very least, is something we all have in common. There's so many albums available, there's enough variety to make my head spin. Anime is not like music. Where is the desire to re experience Anime over and over again? I want to imburse my mind into things, and stuff. What will it take to become a fan of anime?

Overall, if you have absolutely no idea what to take out of what I just said at all, just try to relate to a time when you did some hard core procrastinating to do your homework, crammed in to the last minute. Seriously, i'm going to be up all night doing my homework now. Glad I got that out of me. I hope I tied up as much loose ends here and created as solid a post as possible. Now to get back to homework.

you might want to give Baccano! and Durarara! a peek. They're both from the same studio and their stories are told in unorthodox manners, shifting in-between multiple plot lines simultaneously, and they're so much fun to watch.

I just watched the first episode of Baccano! the other day. Confusing as hell, but it definitely made me want to watch more. The simultaneous plot lines demands a lot to take in all at once.

@metaldiscussor666: If you like exceptionally good artwork and animation, you should try Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit). The storyline isn't too easy to follow though, and the whole thing kinda loses momentum towards the end. But if the animation is gonna keep you interested and motivated, why not try it?

I also second Monster. Retardedly good, atmospheric/dark plot. No flat characters; artwork puts emphasis on expressions and backgrounds. Facial features look rather undetailed though.

Emotionally, I don't feel very positively about the show. It's probably been a considerable amount of time since I finished the series (maybe a year ago.) Perhaps my recollection of the series is vague. I'm going by what my gut tells me. I can articulate some, how I feel about the show, and what I actually remember:

The main character, Lelouch, is a super intelligent lead character. First, that's one of my disconcersions with this show. I don't think that having an intelligent lead character makes the series intelligent. I feel allusions of intelligence through complicated plot twists and plain, yet intelligent characters. The characters feel impersonal. As if i'm supposed to relate with this super genius, Lelouch. Sometimes I think the characters are absolutely retarded. How can Suzaku be so righteous, yet lack so much empathy for Lelouch, to the point of being homicidal towards him?

Lelouch's destiny seems to unfold right under his feet. He happens to fall into a truck. Then he gets chosen by a random space chick to be the chosen one. Then random space chick takes a bullet for him. Then Lelouch becomes the harbinger of truth and Justice. It all just feels really inconspicuous to me. I'm not against fictional stories. I get that if there's no conflict of any kind, it doesn't it doesn't lead up to any event, and that doesn't make much of a story at all. However, the series seemed to try to be compelling through a craaaaaaazy plot. That's what I meant by allusions of intelligence. It's like the series is bluffing it's own complicatedness; it tries to lure me into thinking, "oh man, all this crazy stuff happening. In my mind I feel so compelled by this series. Oh hell, this is so awesome."

There's reasons I can't get behind this whole anime thing.

Again, I get the impression that you feel you're supposed to like it be to an anime fan, and that certainly isn't true. I admit that I was a pretty big fan after the first season, but by the time I finished the second season, I was pretty weary of it all. Code Geass is a series that's VERY anime, if that makes sense. They tend to check off quite a few cliches as the series goes on. I can't help but wonder if Sunrise Studios didn't just look at Death Note and go "Hey, that's pretty cool. What if we did that, but put all of the Gundam stuff we're already good at and make a blockbuster!" Remember, in Japan, Code Geass was sponsored by Pizza Hut (which is why CC is always eating pizza). The big thing they tried to do to keep people coming back was having so many plot twists that threw the story all over the place. Sort of like Lost (which I haven't seen, but it became a water-cooler kind of show that everyone talked about).

metaldiscussor666 wrote:

People have told me before; it's just like any other hobby, you have to try different stuff to see what you like. How many more animes do I have to watch before I am an anime fan? It may not be fair that I justify my general lack of feelings for Anime through generalizations. My perspective is admittedly narrow. However, my perspective is all I have. That's the nature of opinions. I can't for the life of me figure out what's so special about this Anime or Anime in general. However, I suppose it would be like if I tried to generalize metal music. I can't generalize something without seeming conceited.

Anime is not like music. I assume metal music, at the very least, is something we all have in common. There's so many albums available, there's enough variety to make my head spin. Anime is not like music. Where is the desire to re experience Anime over and over again? I want to imburse my mind into things, and stuff. What will it take to become a fan of anime?

There's nothing wrong with opinions. The problem is (as best as I figure) you think there is only one way to get into anime and there isn't. Whenever people ask for suggestions, there isn't any set of anime series that EVERY can enjoy. It's better to see what they already like (fantasy, drama, history, etc), and go from there. Looking back through the thread, I see that you're a fan of the new My Little Pony, and because of that, I can see why you didn't like Code Geass (it takes itself WAY TOO SERIOUSLY) but why you DID like Gurren Lagann (which was over-the-top, but knew it and went with it anyway). It makes me want to suggest things like Card Captor Sakura or Fruits Basket, not just because they're "girlier," but because they don't take themselves so seriously. They're just telling a fun, cute story.

I would argue that anime is very much like music (I mean, come on; Gurren Lagann is the Manowar of anime, admit it). The thing is music is VERY broad, everything from metal to trance to jazz to classical to folk and everything in between. Think of Code Geass as something like U2: popular, capable, but kind of has its head stuck up its own ass. Dragon Ball Z is Styx, Cowboy Bebop is Led Zeppelin, and Naruto is Nickelback (I'm just coming up with these off the top of my head; if you think there are better associations, post your own). The point is that there is enough diversity that it's impossible to like everything; go look at stuff like Panty and Stocking or House of the Five Leaves. Because of this, there are facets of anime fandom that don't agree with each other. The mecha fans don't like the moe/slice-of-life stuff because of its silly, pointless stories, the moe fans don't like mecha because its so artificial and stoic, and the animation snobs dismiss them both for being shallow and meaningless. (Metal vs. Punk vs. Prog, anyone?)

Essentially, anime is like any other hobby. But, like any hobby, not everyone will like it. There are plenty of hobbies I don't care for that are loved by other people (hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, etc.). I agree with Marag (and I've said as much before) that if you watch anime, like some of it, and want to watch more of it, you're an anime fan (just like how listening to metal, liking some of it, and wanting to listen to more makes you a metalhead). I think the thing that makes me come back to anime is that it is so unique compared to animation from the rest of the world. Growing up in the US, I got used to the idea that a cartoon was either Looney Tunes, Batman, or South Park, so the idea that animation could tell long, epic stories (like Gundam and Gurren Lagann) blew my mind, and I couldn't get enough, and stuff like this only comes from Japan. Anime also is much bolder than any other animation, willing to be more fantastical, edgey, experimental, and ridiculous, all while appealing to a mainstream audience (most of this is possible because of the MASSIVE manga/comics culture Japan has, which is even MORE bold).

However, every anime fan's reason for coming back for more is different. Maybe they just want more straight-forward, light-on-plot action. Maybe they just want another set of cute girls that "accidentally" flash their panties. Maybe they just want to see animation be capable of great human drama. Maybe they just want to see how far it can push the imagination. The trick is to figure out why YOU like anime (or even animation in general), and then use your conclusions to find more to watch, continually adjusting it over time. Sometimes, you're going to watch a show that you just don't like (for me, I despise Final Fantasy Unlimited and InuYasha). Understand why you don't like it, revise your theories, and try something else. The reason why I'm so confident in my anime fandom and I know what I like and why I like it is because I've just seen that much of it (I've seen over 3500 episodes and 60 movies, and that's pretty small compared to others). That may seem intimidating, so is heavy metal to someone who's just getting into it (I've only been listening for about six years, and I haven't gotten to that much Priest or Maiden yet.)

Sorry for the walls of text, but in the end, my intention is to say "Don't freak out! Be patient, especially with yourself." If you aren't sure about a series, do some research. There's a wikipedia page for every anime series we've recommended or discussed in this thread. The Anime News Network and AniDB.net have encyclopedias for looking up series as well (thought they aren't quite as robust as the Metal Archives here). You also might want to look at sites like My Anime List and Anime Planet, as they're more geared towards providing anime recommendations. It's all out there, you just have be willing to dig into it.

I only skimmed the beginning there, but yeah. First season of Code Geass was fun, second was downright awful and imagine watching that once a week as I did... cliffhangers out the ass, it was painful.

But there is something more lifeless, more boring, tepid, and dreadful... Gundam 00's second season. Coma inducing. Code Geass R2 to me was very rage inducing, but at least it brought out SOME emotion. 00 on the other hand was just beyond boring, but I had to finish it. lol

I love the hell out of Sunrise' 80-90's catalog, but can't say I have much faith or care for them at all anymore. Like Capcom!

@People who quoted me: I didn't see your replies before. I guess it didn't cross my mind while I was occupying my time when my power was out. I'll probably get around to reading them eventually.__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm going to talk about Bible Black, the interactive adult novel. I couldn't decide whether or not to put this in the Anime thread, or the literature thread, or the game thread. It's kind of all 3! Since it bears the characteristics of Anime most prevalently, I feel it might as well go here. Don't ask me why, it's just agoin' here!

What fun this game was! With multiple endings you basically steer your way to various destinies through decisions you make via pointing and clicking on a command box that usually gives you about two options. This leads you to various endings/destinies. Since you can't really foresee what your destiny is going to be unless you have a guide, all you can do is make the best possible decisions. At first I just chose the path that got me the freakiest porn scenes, only to get a "bad ending" being stabbed inadvertently by a character named Ito later on in the game. I recently discovered through a guide that that is just one of two Ito stabbing endings out of 12 endings in total! Almost all of which are bad (and often deadly), besides one good ending and one "normal ending."

For those of you reading this, who don't have an idea what this game is like. It's basically a novel, with pictures. Like a manga. You click on the screen to make more dialog and scenes appear depicting what the first person experiences. It flows just like you're reading a novel. You can also save your game and backtrack to previous dialog. It's actually a very immersive and compelling story. Surprisingly only about 10% of the game is porn scenes. The rest of it is long periods of dialog and story development.

The music is pretty damn good. I loved how I found little things throughout the game that I could relate to metal and in life! April 30s, Walpurgis night is my birthday! Kick ass! Finally the date of my birth has some significance! However, the correlation to metal is generally only incidental. The sacrifice sword has INRI on it (sarcofago). The grimoire (nunslaughter). Mentioning king solomon (beherit). The creepy chant they use "Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Zazas! Agios, Agios! LUIFER ASCENDANT!(repeated)" is exactly the same as the one used by the norwegian black metal band dodsengel in their eere (and incredible album) mirium occultum. The brief quotation of the bands names napalm death and carcass in the character dialog. Golgotha (numerous bands). There's got to be a myriad of other metal correlations given the nature of the satanic rituals. The whole satanic themes just made the game all the more compelling.

This game was awesome. In spite of playing it only halfway (fyi not completing all the endings) never achieving the "good ending," I found it to be very memorable. I actually picked it back up after about a year to attempt a better ending. I may have to look up a guide online after all. This game was amazing but I doubt i'll find an interactive novel I like as much as this one. Notable, I didn't actually find the porn the most enjoyable aspect of it this hentai. I don't know, It wasn't bad, but maybe the fact that I was getting involved in the story, it made it difficult to enjoy the sensual stuff. Either way, if you play this interactive adult hentai novel game, you're going to get highly explicit porn one way or another. I can't say this is was by any stretch of the imagination a deterring factor for me...

Anyway, I finished watching Serial Experiments Lain some days ago. After watching Texnholyze, I was a bit disappointed that this one didn't gave me crippling depression at the ending, but what Lain did really well was confusing the shit out of me. It has a really good atmosphere, unsettling and tense all the time, with the overwhelmingly bright environments contrasted with those strange shadows, the soudntrack of static noises and hard electronica doing a good job of giving that "cyberpunk" feel. It deals with some pretty interesting subjects, it's interesting to see how the Wired parallels to the internet nowadays, specially considering this anime was made in the 90's. This is one of these shows that I'll have to watch again to really "get" it

I'm almost finishing Mushishi, and I can safely say this is one of the best animes I've ever watched.

Almost completing the first season of Jormungand too, which aired earlier this year. Very enjoyable. Some say it's like Black Lagoon but a bit more comedic but I wouldn't know since I've never watched Black Lagoon. Either way it's a really fun series of compelling nutjobs selling weapons and blowing shit up.

Been watching some shit from this season too. JoJo apparently will get 26 episodes, which pleases me. Psycho-Pass seems promising, Shin Sekai Yori has been interesting so far but it's also kinda of a mess. The other shows airing range from simple fun, retardadly enjoyable and completely retarded, i.e. business as usual

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

It already is, it's just that I already have a shitload of things on my hd that I have to finish first.

It's good to know I'm not the only one with that problem...

Same (well, I've seen BL many times, I'm talking other specific animes), and I have +25 more bookmarked that are my priority behind what's on my HD and behind regular life workload.

_________________

gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

It's hard to watch shows as of lately because of Grad school and finding a job after graduating in the spring.

But what I am watching is JJBA, which has been very fun from this season. The other shows that I have on my back order are Strawberry Panic, Madoka, Rose of Versailes, Captain Harlock, Cutey Honey, and Towards the Terra. I probably plan to watch them during winter break.